Monday, 2 April 2018

The two promising bands Yasmine and JAGD were both competing in the local band competition Amsterdamse Popprijs in 2017 where JAGD came out as the big winner. Now they are teaming up for a series of gigs where they are appear to be competing again.

There’s no real fight tonight of course, it’s just the theme of this series of shows. Screens are showing old boxing fights and both bands perform in a boxing ring. It looks pretty cool, although maybe not very practical sound wise, but the bands are really close to the crowd.

Yasmine
First up are Yasmine, who play garage pop songs. The group doesn’t like to make it easy for themselves or their audience. Their songs are clever and require a bit of work to get into. The three musicians are obviously very skilled and the songs have interesting structures and themes. Singer and guitar player Kevin van Moorsel is pretty good at small talk with the audience and is convincing as a front man. It will be interesting to see how far this band can go.

JAGD
It looks like JAGD has a fast growing fan base as the hall has filled up some more. The band doesn’t waste any time and sets fire to the place right away with their contagious punk rock songs. It’s impossible to stand still when these guys and girl fire up one catchy rock tune after another. The 80s new wave twist works very well and the rhythm section adds plenty of groove that give the songs the right amount of spice. Singer Nanne van der Linden’s rough vocals bring even more fire and it doesn’t take long for a mosh pit to appear in front of the stage. By the end the fans in the pit have completely lost it and are literally flying through the room, including the band's guitar player Jos Neering. JAGD knows how to throw a good party.

It’s good to see bands like this team up, since they can use all the help they need to play plenty of shows and hopefully in the end work their way up to an established spot in the music scene. Both groups have shown plenty of potential to get there, so tonight everyone wins.